Insurance company refusing to give a copy of Master Policy and demanding a copy of my CPPD application

Disability Insurance
1

My insurance company has been avoiding sending me a copy of my Master Policy for months, despite their legal obligation under the Insurance Act.

They also have tried some smoke and mirrors strategies to try to access information on my CPPD application. Normally that would be okay with me but this company has been extremely sneaky and adversarial. They have outright lied to me on more than one occasion.

They have done little to support me to return to working status and have refused to provide any information in writing about the existence of any back to work program I could work on with my therapist.

I don’t feel they have a right to a copy of my CPPD application as I have chosen to work with a social worker/advocate who is not employed by them and is advocating on my behalf but cannot give legal advice.

The insurance company confirmed it is my right to refuse to have someone employed by them assist in the application process but are forcing that anyway by giving me arbitrary deadlines and making demands while witholding access to my rights unless I meet their demands.

The CPPD application contains detailed information that has nothing to do with my claim with this company, although is relevant for CPP (such as my daughter’s social insurance number for example) and, due to their bad faith practices I do not trust them with anything but the bare mininimum information required.

My social worker is helping me with my CPPD application and will be submitting it on my behalf. She has indicated I should contact a lawyer because the insurance company has communicated that they will withold my medical information to CPPD pending receipt of my full application. Can they do that?

Is the insurance company entitled to do these things and overstep in their access to information?

I am willing to have my social worker officially inform when the application has been submitted and keep them posted on the decision, but without access to my Master Policy, I can’t know what my rights are and wish to legally deny them a copy of the application. Instead I would like to agree to updates on submission and outcomes.

Can you tell me what my rights are here?

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I don’t have any answers for you but I can tell you I also have asked for my master policy and have still not received it. I submitted a complaint through the online claims portal over a month ago and have not received any response. When I first requested the master policy, they send me a partial master policy with 8pages redacted. When I asked for the full unredacted version their response was ‘they were unable to provide me with any additional information’.

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The only advice I can give:

  1. Send a formal information request letter/email for your complete claim file referencing PIPEDA legislation. The claim file you will get will include your master policy. Google the email address of your insurer’s privacy officer and copy them on your information request letter. Sun Life, for example, will then email your entire claim file within 10 business days if you do this.

  2. A simple written email stating “I will not share my CPP-D application documentation due to privacy issues unless you can provide me an entire copy of my master LTD policy/contract highlighting where it states I am required to show you my CPP-D application”.

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